In July 2024, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage participated in the Smithsonian National Education Summit, the fourth annual convening for PreK-12 teachers, museum educators, librarians, and policymakers, hosted online and in Washington, D.C. With the theme “Together We Thrive: Connecting at the Intersections,” this year’s summit focused on ways to navigate and teach interconnected and complex histories. On the final day, the Center hosted thirty educators for two sessions that explored the theme of inclusive storytelling.
Founded in 1967, the Center has built a long history of community engagement and educational outreach. From the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival that works to share cultural knowledge with live audiences to Smithsonian Folkways’ extensive collection of audio recordings and educational resources, the Center is dedicated to telling inclusive stories through the voices of those who live them.
“Education is at the heart of everything we do here at the Center,” says Marjorie Hunt, curator and education specialist.
As educators spilled into the Center on July 18, they found themselves surrounded by “storied objects” collected during field research and from past Festivals. After the chairs in the conference room filled and the chatter died down, Center curators and education specialists began the session “Multicultural Journeys: Telling Inclusive Stories,” highlighting the wealth of educational resources offered by the Center.
Masters of Tradition: A Cultural Journey Across America Story Map
Hunt introduced the educators to Masters of Tradition: A Cultural Journey Across America, an online, interactive story map that draws from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Smithsonian Folkways collections to highlight the growing roster of NEA National Heritage Fellows, designated by the National Endowment for the Arts. This free resource allows users to explore the rich artistic traditions of the United States by simply clicking on pins to learn about these expert artists from every region of the country.
“It’s something that you can get lost in exploring,” Hunt says. “And you come to realize that diversity is one of our country’s greatest strengths.”
The educators, coming from schools across the nation, had the opportunity to explore the artistic heritage represented in their home states, discovering artists there who have shaped the country’s multifaceted cultural landscape.
Folkways Music Pathways
Special projects and content manager Logan Clark and education specialist Jen Mellizo introduced the Folkways Music Pathways project, a free, online educational resource that contextualizes complex histories through songs that those histories inspired. Through these sonic firsthand accounts, learners gain a more nuanced understanding of cultures and histories through the perspectives of musicians.
“One of the main purposes of Music Pathways is to tell the stories of marginalized groups that have been left out of social studies and music curricula,” Mellizo says. “We hope that this resource can open the door to conversations that are sometimes hard to have in the classroom.”
The Music Pathways encourage learners to analyze songs as cultural and historical artifacts. In so doing, learners gain an intimate view of the cultures and histories being taught. This resource also empowers educators, giving them the confidence to teach histories previously unfamiliar to them.
Looking Forward: Youth and the Future of Culture
“What are some things that you wish the general public understood or appreciated about teen culture today?”
High school students Talia Fleischmann and Jasmine Ferrell posed this question to the room of educators. Representing the Museum of Contemporary American Teenagers, they are part of a team of local students who are curating content for the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, Looking Forward: Youth and the Future of Culture.
“Through next year’s Festival programming, these students hope to give not just educators but the broader public a different perspective on what some teen experiences are actually like,” lead curator Michelle Banks says.
For decades, the Festival has engaged the public with an emphasis on educating young people about various living cultures. In 2025, the roles will be reversed, as young people educate adults about the youth culture of the present and the future. The Festival is the Center’s longest-running educational resource, and its longevity is rooted in direct collaboration with communities sharing inclusive stories.
In addition to the presentations, Folkways director and curator and interim archives director Maureen Loughran gave the educators a tour of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. While viewing numerous primary-source documents—including the personal letters of Langston Hughes and Woody Guthrie—attendees were introduced to the valuable histories preserved in the climate-controlled collections at the core of the Center.
The 2024 National Education Summit exemplifies the Smithsonian’s dedication to preserving and spreading knowledge to learners. Today’s learning environment is challenging, but educational resources like those at the Center present a multitude of cultures and complex histories. By tapping into these wells of culture and history, educators can inspire curiosity in learners while encouraging them to seek knowledge through a diversity of perspectives.
Educators interested in future events should sign up for the Smithsonian Education newsletter and save the dates for the next summit: July 15 to 17, 2025.
Find more educational resources from the Center.
Lauren Hogg is a writing intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and a senior at Georgetown University, majoring in American studies.
